358 



Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persona, 



[MARCH, 



where he* earthly remains had been depo- 

 sited, and there paid a fervent, heartfelt 

 tribute of undying affection to her cherished 

 memory ! He had often expressed a sincere 

 wish to die on that day ; and, by a striking 

 and marked dispensation of Providence, it 

 had pleased God to call him from this world 

 of care on that very day, and almost at the 

 same hour ! ! ! 



THE EARL OF HARRINGTON. 



Charles Stanhope, third Earl of Harring- 

 ton, Viscount Petersham, and Baron Har- 

 rington, was a descendant from Sir John 

 Stanhope, of Elvaston, in Derbyshire, half 

 brother of Philip, first Earl of Chesterfield. 

 His Lordship was Governor and Constable 

 of Windsor Castle ; offices in which, upon 

 his demise, he was succeeded by the Mar- 

 quess of Conyngham. He was also a Ge- 

 neral in the army, Colonel of the First Re- 

 giment of Life Guards, G.C.H., &c. Few 

 are the individuals who have been so for- 

 tunate as this nobleman in their family 

 connexions, public employments, or high 

 and illustrious patronage. 



His Lordship, born on the 20th of March, 

 1753, was the son of William, second Earl 

 of Harrington, by his Countess, the Lady 

 Caroline Fitzroy, eldest daughter of Charles 

 Duke of Grafton. In 1769, before he had 

 completed his seventeenth year, he entered 

 the army as an Ensign, with the rank of 

 Lieutenant in the Coldstream Regiment of 

 Guards ; within four years he was promoted 

 to a company in the 29th Regiment of 

 Foot ; and, early in 177C, having exchanged 

 his light company for the Grenadier Com- 

 pany of the same regiment, he sailed for 

 North America, where he served in all the 

 principal engagements during the cam- 

 paigns of that and the following year. In 

 1777? his Lordship was aid-de-camp to Ge- 

 neral Burgoyne ; and, after the unfortunate 

 close of the campaign, by the surrender of 

 the British army at Saratoga, he was sent 

 to England with the General's dispatches. 



Soon after his arrival in London, his 

 Lordship (then Lord Petersham) was ap- 

 pointed Lieut. -Colonel in the 3d regiment 

 of Foot Guards. On the death of his father, 

 in 1779, he succeeded to the Earldom. 

 The same year he married Jane, one of the 

 daughters of Sir John Fleming, Bart. ; by 

 whom he had a family of ten children, and 

 in whose society he was blest with a more 

 than usual portion of domestic happiness, 

 until the period of her Ladyship's death, in 

 the year 1824. In 1780, the Earl of Har- 

 rington sailed for Jamaica, with the 85th 

 Regiment of Infantry, a regiment which he 

 had himself raised, and to which he had 

 been appointed Lieut. -Colon el Command- 

 ant. Soon after his arrival at Jamaica, he 

 received the provisional rank of Brigadier 

 General, with the command of the flank 

 companies of all the regiments on the island. 

 In the course of twelve months, however, 

 his regiment, one of the finest corps ever 

 raised, was reduced to a skeleton, by the 



dreadful mortality of the climate ; and, to 

 preserve its remains, they were sent home 

 in some of the French ships taken by Lord 

 Rodney, in his engagement with the Count 

 de Grasse, in April, 1782. His Lordship's 

 own health was seriously affected ; and he, 

 too, with his lady, who had borne him com- 

 pany in the expedition, returned to Eng- 

 land. On his arrival, he was most gra- 

 ciously received by his late Majesty, who 

 appointed him one of his Aides-de-camp, 

 with the rank of colonel in the army. 



On the death of Lieutenant-General Cal- 

 craft, of the 65th Foot, in 1783, the Earl of 

 Harrington succeeded to the command of 

 that regiment, with which he immediately 

 sailed for Ireland. This was under the 

 Viceroyship of the Duke of Rutland, whose 

 friendship and confidence his Lordship en- 

 joyed. 



It was during Lord Harrington's com- 

 mand of the garrison at Dublin, that Gene- 

 ral Dundas's new system of tactics, after- 

 wards generally adopted throughout the 

 service, was first tried in his Lordship's 

 regiment. 



The 65th Regiment having been ordered 

 to America, in 1785, the Earl returned to 

 England, where, with the advantage of one 

 of the finest military libraries in the king, 

 dom, he enjoyed a brief but delightful period 

 of retirement. On the death of Lieut.- 

 General Tryon, in J 788, his Lordship was 

 nominated to succeed that officer, in the 

 Colonelcy of his old regiment, the 29th ; 

 an appointment which he had formerly ex-- 

 pressed a desire to obtain, and it was now 

 conferred upon him as a special mark of 

 royal favour, and in kind remembrance of 

 his former wish. In fact, he would have 

 received the command on the death of 

 Lieut.-General Evelyn, had not General 

 Tryon been appointed before his wish was 

 known. 



The 29th Regiment, then just returned 

 from America, was subsequently stationed 

 at Cheltenham and at Windsor, during the 

 King's residence at those places. It was, 

 indeed, a peculiar favourite with his Ma- 

 jesty, as the circumstance of its remaining 

 three years in garrison at Windsor, afforded 

 sufficient proof. 



In the winter of 1792, the King con- 

 ferred an additional mark of his regard 

 upon the Earl of Harrington, by appointing 

 him Colonel of the First Regiment of Life 

 Guards, with the gold stick. At the pro- 

 motion of General Officers, in 1793, he was 

 made a Major-General. His appointment 

 of gold stick, rendered nugatory his Lord- 

 ship's wish to serve with the Duke of York 

 in his campaigns on the Continent ; but 

 the King was pleased to employ him on a 

 private mission to His Royal Highness. 



In 1798, his Lordship was promoted to 

 the rank of Lieut. -General ; for a short time 

 he was on the staff of Great Britain ; sub- 

 sequently he had a command in the Lon- 

 don District; and, in 1803, he attained the 

 rank of General. 



